Birds of a Feather
by Ashlee Insane
Summary: Penelope Dolan's parents are divorced, she lives in a tourist trap, and is completely average-or so she thinks. Who knew the beach wasn't all it's cracked up to be? Who knew Forks was the home she's been dreaming of all her life?
1. Chapter 1: Introduction

Well, my name is Phoebe Lela Dolan. I'm your average American teenager—now wait. Don't get discouraged. I know a lot stories start off with "I'm an average _," and then all of the sudden the protagonist's life turns into some amazing adventure. That phrase has been so overused nowadays, I'm pretty sure it's a cliché. But the point I'm trying to make here is, I really am an average American teenager, and I can prove it.

I'm a teenager because I'm 16. Technically, a preteen is 10 to 13. A teenager is 14-17. Seeing as I fall between the ages 14 and 17, I'm a teenager. Lawyered.

I'm American, because I was born in America—North Carolina to be exact. That one was easy.

Explaining the average part will be a bit harder. I have a Mom and a Dad, just like everyone. They're divorced. To me that's still pretty average. I mean, studies show that 1 in 5 adults get divorced at some point in their lives. So, I live with my mom for the year and go see my dad on holiday's and long weekends. My mom and I live in an average suburb (Fredericksburg, Virginia) of an average American city (Washington, D.C.). My dad still lives in an average American vacation spot (Emerald Isle, North Carolina). We're not rich, not poor… just average. Getting the trend here?

Anyways, I think I've proved my point. Seeing as you're so interested, though, I'll continue.

My dad used to work for the government. I don't know what he did. I was too young to care when he actually had that job, and now that he's retired it doesn't really matter anymore. It took him to Marine bases all over the world, but his favorite was Camp Lejeune which is why he lives in the tourist trap about 30 minutes from there. Coincidentally, it is where I was born.

My mom had no desire to work for the government, despite her current job in Washington, D.C. She never wanted to travel like my dad did, which is kind of ironic considering how her job is moving her to Seattle. She got the promotion about a month ago and had to decide to take it or leave it. She took it—more money just can't be passed up. Plus, they are going to pay for her house and commute if she doesn't want to live in the city… which she doesn't.

As for me, I'm moving to the beach. I was never one for the steaming hot weather of North Carolina, but I do like it the sunny beach. Plus I hear my new school will be pretty nice. I'll get the summer to adjust, and then off to Croatan it is.

Whatever that means.


	2. Chapter 2: A Stay at the Beach

_Hey, everyone! I'm Ashlynn. To those of you who know me, it's been a while since I last saw you. I've actually been around… just not in the mood for writing. However, I'm back and better than ever with my latest story! This one is a Twilight Fic, obviously. It's got a basic plot already, but I'm still open to suggestions. Please tell me what you like and what you don't. It may start out a bit slow… and it will be at least 4 chapters before we get to the love interest. Actually it may be at least 2 before we even get to Forks! We'll see… but until then, happy reading!_

_**Summary: **__Penelope Dolan's parents are divorced, she lives in a tourist trap, and is perfectly normal—or so she thinks! Who knew the beach wasn't all it's cracked up to be? Who knew Forks was the home she'd been dreaming of her entire life? And who would have thought that the only real friends she'd ever had would turn out to be supernatural creatures? Certainly not Penelope._

_**Disclaimer:**__ I do not own this or any of the following chapters in my story. I only own original characters, including—but not limited to—Penelope and her family. Everything else is owned by Stephanie Meyer. Also, real places have been used in this story (for example, Croatan High School). I have never actually been to these places, and therefore have no knowledge of what they are actually like. If I have slandered a place in any way, please, don't take it seriously. This is for entertainment purposes only; no harm has been intended._

**Chapter One:**

**A Day at the Beach**

It's amazing, the power of the sun. It can destroy you or give you life, depending on how you look at it. Without it, we would die. Too much, you could still die. It gives you high fashion tans or leathery wrinkles, dry deserts or luscious forests full of plants. Currently, though, it was giving me some much needed vitamin D.

My eyes snapped open before I sat up and glanced at my phone. It was 5:32. I still had a little while before I had to be home for dinner.

Living in Virginia meant it was sunny enough to be warm and warm enough to go to the pool, so it wasn't like I had a complete lack of summer experiences. Still, moving to my dad's house in the South Outer Banks of North Carolina meant I had a beach at my disposal every single day, and that's how I spent my entire summer—at the beach. There's just something about the feel of sand under your toes and the sound of water lapping against the shore that draws me to it.

Not to mention the atmosphere. It was always happy and positive. Even though the beach that I normally visited was filled with tourists, they were always happy… and why wouldn't they be? It is their vacation. You could practically feel the joy radiating off of them, and the shouts and laughter just reinforced that. It sure beats the sullen feel to coffee shops or the confined space of a pool.

Yes, Emerald Isle, North Carolina was quickly shaping out to be the best place I have ever lived. Still, that's not saying much considering I've only ever lived in Fredericksburg, Virginia and Morehead City, North Carolina. I did have the option of going to Washington this year, but now that I think about it, I think I made the right decision.

I sighed as my eyes wondered over the horizon, and then up and down the beach. I leaned back and closed them again.

Sure, there are some differences between Mom and Dad. Mom is not often found at home: she's gone in the morning and back late. Dad, on the other hand, never leaves: retirement has glued him to ESPN. I find myself cooking dinner, getting groceries, and picking up for him. I don't really mind; I love my dad and he really isn't that high maintenance. Mom is. She's always wanting to take me shopping. I don't mind, I love getting new things. That may seem like something a spoiled girl would say, and maybe it is. But I don't have much, and it's not like I buy things that are useless.

Speaking of useless, school starts tomorrow. I was kind of dreading that. Even though I'm 16, I would be starting school as a junior. I was enrolled in school early, so I'm always one of the youngest in my class. Despite my age, I'm quite smart. Not a genius, but I am in Honors and AP classes and I've never gotten below a B before… knock on wood.

I stood up and shook off my towel. After packing up my stuff, I trekked through the sand to my monstrosity of a car—a cherry red 1957 Desoto Fireflite. Ok, yes, you caught my lie. That's not even close to my car. It's my dad's new toy. He bought it when he retired, fixed it all up, and now lets me drive it out of the goodness of his heart. Actually, he realized that I could drive, doesn't want to buy me a car, but still needs me to run his errands. Still, that's fine by me. I love it!

When I walked through the door to my house, I realized that Dad ordered pizza. Mom never ordered pizza unless I was having friends over. She's kind of a health freak, but lets me eat whatever. If I wanted it and it was junk though, then I would have to buy it myself. It was actually kind of a nice system, because I got to eat right but still got my treats in. I was pretty much scavenging here with my dad.

I grabbed a slice of pizza, and walked over to the aquarium. I sprinkled some food into the tank. "Hey there, Sushi. How was your day? Been exercising those fins properly?" Sushi was my Beta fish. He was mostly dark red, but he turned a bit purple at the end of the fins. He was also my only pet since I moved out of Mom's house. He swam back and forth enthusiastically, as if to prove to me that yes, he had been exercising. I laughed and went on to the screen porch to water the plants.

I love all sorts of plants. One of the first things I did when I moved here was buy some hanging flower pots and plant some petunias. I also had a small garden by the deck, but those plants didn't need water as often as the hanging ones did, because they weren't covered and had access to rain. I loved the random rain storms that North Carolina had. Rain was one of my favorite types of weather.

After I finished with my plants, I went in and found my dad. He was, of course, at the TV watching ESPN. "Hey Dad," I greeted.

He looked up at me for a second before returning his eyes to the TV. "Hey Penny. I ordered pizza—help yourself." He gestured to the kitchen.

"I already got some. I think I'm going to go upstairs and read for a bit. I'll head to bed early."

"Really? Nothing fun to do tonight?" He sounded surprised, and I didn't blame him. I was usually out pretty late hanging on the beach or exploring the area. I even met a few people and we would hang out every now and then.

I shrugged. "No. And even if I did, school starts tomorrow. Got to be well rested and all that."

"Alright. Well, good night then. Go ahead and take Dez tomorrow so you don't have to worry about the bus." Dez was what he nicknamed the Desoto.

"Night, Dad."

Croatan was something else. It was huge. There were tons of people, and everything was utter chaos. In class, the students were unruly at best. In the halls, it was so crowded students could barely even open their lockers. I can't say it was my favorite place to be.

Still, I excelled in my classes. Even for the amount of people here, I was towards the top of my class, so I was happy. My teachers, for the most part, ignored me as long as I kept it up. Most of the students ignored me too. They already had their little group of friends and I didn't fit in to be honest. I didn't say "ya'll" and eat at Bojangles for ever other meal. I didn't drink sweet tea—I didn't drink any tea actually. I avoided them, and they avoided me, and it worked for a us.

My mom started talking to me more and more. I missed her. Dad and I ran out of things to talk about, though. We're both kind of silent people, so I didn't really mind. I spent most of my home time either in my room studying or outside. The weather didn't change as it shifted from summer to fall. It was still sunny and warm, though not as hot as it was in the summer months. In Virginia, the trees would change colors and leaves would be everywhere. Here, the trees were mostly coniferous. Only a few lost their leaves. If not for that, I would have wondered if the seasons were really changing at all.

If you haven't noticed by now, I'm kind of an outdoorsy person. I love to be outside, and I love every season, though I do tend to lean toward winter more than the others. There's something about snow that just amazes me every time I see it. I know science describes it as frozen water, but to me, it seems much more magical than that.

As it got closer and closer to December, I realized that the weather was not going to let it snow here in North Carolina. So, I requested to spend Christmas with Mom up in Washington. It would definitely snow there—maybe even blizzard!

And maybe, something interesting would happen there. I mean, I know the town where my mother chose to live, Forks, was small. Still, if it's not the tourist season (and it wasn't), then there wasn't much to do at Emerald Isle… unless you're my dad and you have the uncanny ability to sit on the couch for days on end. I don't, by the way—unfortunately, that's not genetic.

Finally, it was Christmas Break! No more school, no more weather that is super cold but has no snow to show for it, no more boredom, nothing! Christmas was also my favorite holiday. That's probably a lot of people's favorite holiday, but to me, it wasn't about the presents. I just liked the snow. And the music!

Singing was something I did pretty much all of the time. The music during Christmas time that played during the radio was often the same songs repeated but done by different people. I, however, didn't mind the repetition that I heard a lot of my classmates complain about school. I mean, they didn't complain when Jay-Z redid "Forever Young."

"You all packed up, Penny?" I heard my dad call from up the stairs.

Last night we had Fake Christmas. I always have some sort of Fake holiday with either of my parents. Last year, mom had Fake Christmas and dad had Real Christmas; it's just one of the symptoms of having divorced parents. I like to look on the bright side: two holidays.

"Yeah, Dad. I'm ready." I carried down my bags—one suitcase and a carry-on—and we headed out the door to the airport.

It was a three hour drive to the airport, a five hour flight to Seattle, a one hour flight to Port Angeles, and a thirty minute drive to my mom's new town of Forks.

It was going to be a long day.

Lucky for me, Dad didn't like to talk much. He made a few comments every once in a while, like "don't forget to call me when you get there" and "drive carefully in the snow," but for the most part we just listened to the Christmas songs on the radio, and I read my book.

The flight was the easy part. I had the seat to myself, so I relocated to the window and watched until we were too high to see anything. I was lucky no one was around me really, so I didn't have to feign interest in a conversation. I finished my book and dozed until the Captain announced that we were landing, so I turned my attention back to the window.

The first thing I saw was snow. I could already tell it was way more than I was ever used to. Virginia's snows were nothing compared to this, and North Carolina was a joke when it came to winter. But here, there were huge drifts of snow that had been cleared off the runways. I had the sudden urge to go jump in one. Instead, I packed up my stuff and went to transfer to my next flight.

It was much shorter than the first and a lot smaller, too. There were only three rows of seats and an isle going down the right side of the middle row. I wasn't by a window this time, and was sitting next to an abnormally large lady, who snored loudly. How did I know this? She was doing it now—and I could tell no one really appreciated it.

When I landed in Port Angeles, I saw my mom immediately. "Penny!" she screeched. "Penny, I'm over here!" She was practically jumping up and down, as if I wouldn't notice her.

I gradually made my way over to her after grabbing my carry-on case. She engulfed me in a huge hug, which I returned though not as enthusiastically. I was never one much for hugging. "Hey, Mom. How are you?"

"Great, now that you're here! Oh, we're going to have such a fun Christmas! Look at all the snow! I bet they didn't have any in North Carolina, did they? Oh, but there's plenty here! Of course, there's ice, too, so we'll have to be careful about that… but I know that you're a smart girl at least and I can trust you to—"

And that's where I stopped her with my laughing. "I missed you, too, Mom. But it's been a long day. I want to see your house."

A look of excitement crossed over her face. "Oh, you're just going to love it!" she gushed while leading me through the airport to her car. "It's a colonial, kind of like our one in Virginia, but it's made out of brick instead of siding. And there's only 3 rooms upstairs instead of 4, but we hardly needed that many anyways!"

I spent the rest of the trip to Forks looking out the window and listening to my mom talk about various things that I only half listened too. Finally, we pulled into a driveway of exactly what she had said. A medium sized, brick, colonial style house. It had a nice sized wood porch with steps leading up to it.

"I'm sure it's been a long day for you, Pen. Why don't you head on upstairs to bed?"

I nodded my consent and trudged up the stairs. I got to pick out of two rooms. Both were very plain. One faced the front of the house and was painted a plain white. It had a nice sized closet and two windows, but it really wasn't anything special. I went through the shared bathroom to the other room. It was also very plain—painted white, boring comforter, nothing on the walls—but this one had three large windows that faced the woods in the back of the house. Plus, the closet was a tad bigger. So this is where I dropped my stuff and fell on the bed, fast asleep.

_Ok, so this chapter was obviously about getting to know the OCs. It's kind of slow moving, but I got her to Forks for you! Also, I need to tell you that from here on out, I will not be having author notes or disclaimers. The one disclaimer is for the entire story, and author notes will only be used if I have something very important that you all need to know. If you want to get in contact with me, Rate&Review of leave a message._

_See you next time!_


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